New York Jets owner Woody Johnson has acquired a minority stake in Aston Martin's Formula 1 team and joined its board of directors as vice-chairman, deepening the 79-year-old billionaire's sprawling sports portfolio at a moment when the team he's buying into is mired near the back of the grid. The deal was struck in Zandvoort, Netherlands, and adds Formula 1 to a stable that already includes the Jets and a major stake in Premier League club Crystal Palace.
Johnson's move into Formula 1 marks his first involvement in the sport, according to The Athletic, which reported that he has developed an appreciation for Aston Martin's history and for team principal Lawrence Stroll's strategic vision. Aston Martin described Johnson's investment as a strategic minority stake and called him an ideal partner, while Stroll — who serves as Aston Martin's executive chairman — welcomed Johnson to the Aston Martin family and said his experience, passion and investment strengthen the team's position, per the same account.
The exact size of Johnson's stake and the price he paid were not disclosed by either party at the announcement, though industry estimates offer a range. PlanetF1 has reported that Johnson's stake could be roughly 15 percent, which at a team valuation near $3.5 billion would put the investment in the neighborhood of $525 million. That estimate builds on a cap table that, before Johnson's arrival, included Stroll's Yew Tree Consortium at 33 percent alongside Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund at 20 percent and shareholders including Mercedes, Geely, Lucid Group and Ernesto Bertarelli, according to Crash.net. Stroll's consortium acquired the team in 2018 and retains operational control despite owning less than half of the total equity.
From a Distressed Asset to a Multibillion-Dollar Team
The team Johnson is buying into has traveled a remarkable financial arc. Stroll's consortium picked up the insolvent Force India team's assets for $117 million in 2018, initially rebranding it as Racing Point before adopting the Aston Martin name after Stroll took shares in the road car company. Boss Hunting has estimated that transformation delivered roughly a 28-fold return on the asset's underlying enterprise value over seven years, and by July 2025, Aston Martin Lagonda's sale of its remaining 4.37 percent minority stake valued the F1 team at an estimated £2.4 billion, or $3.2 billion, as reported by BlackBook Motorsport.
That valuation growth has come despite persistent losses on the books. Corporate filings published in October 2025 showed the team lost £45.8 million, or $61 million, in 2024 alone, bringing its five-year total net losses to £189.5 million since the Aston Martin rebrand, according to SportsPro. Stroll has poured money into a state-of-the-art wind tunnel and factory facility near Silverstone in pursuit of a championship contender, and Aston Martin has said it has long-term ambitions of fighting for a world championship — but on-track results in 2026 have not matched that spending.
A Rough Season on the Grid
Aston Martin has scored just one point through the opening 11 races of the 2026 season and sits 10th of 11 teams in the constructors' championship, per The Athletic. The team's new car has suffered performance and reliability issues this year. Fernando Alonso, the two-time world champion signed by the team in 2023, and Lance Stroll both drive for Aston Martin, while Adrian Newey — who holds a small shareholding in the team and serves as team principal and managing technical partner — has been tasked with turning around the technical struggles.
The team is also navigating a major technical transition. For 2026, Aston Martin became Honda's exclusive works engine partner under new FIA rules mandating 100 percent sustainable fuels and a near 50-50 split between internal combustion and electric power, a shift Hoodline covered when Honda rolled championship cars into Monterey Car Week. Honda previously supplied engines to Red Bull Racing before entering the exclusive works agreement with Aston Martin.
Johnson's Growing Sports Empire
Johnson, heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical fortune, bought the Jets in 2000 and also served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 2017 to 2021. His NFL franchise has ballooned in value alongside the rest of the league: Sportico valued the Jets at $10.35 billion in August 2026, a 28 percent year-over-year jump that ranks the team fifth overall in the NFL, according to The Big Lead, compared with the $635 million he paid for it in 2000.
Johnson also owns 45 percent of Crystal Palace, having acquired his stake from John Textor in 2025 for an estimated £190 million, or $254 million — a deal that resolved UEFA multi-club ownership rules threatening the club's eligibility for European competition, per SportsPro. Notably, Johnson and fellow Crystal Palace American co-owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer retained the Raine Group in June 2026 to explore selling their combined 79 percent stake in the Premier League club at a valuation exceeding £1 billion, according to The Irish Times — a sale exploration that came just months before Johnson's new F1 investment.
A Shared Bet on American Fans
Johnson and Stroll share a commitment to growing Formula 1's fanbase in the United States and plan to introduce more American fans to the sport, The Athletic reported. That ambition lines up with a broader shift in the sport's U.S. footprint: Formula 1 moved its exclusive American broadcasting rights from ESPN to Apple TV beginning in 2026 under a five-year streaming deal covering all race sessions, while the sport continues to host three U.S. races, in Miami, Austin and Las Vegas.
For now, Johnson says he plans to contribute to the continued development of the Aston Martin F1 team and aims to help build an organization capable of competing at the highest level of Formula 1. Whether that translates into results on track remains to be seen, but the investment adds another marquee name — and another nine-figure sum — to a team that has attracted heavyweight capital even as it fights to climb out of the constructors' standings.
